The Steam Page for FTL: Faster Than Light has word that this indie spaceship strategy sim will be released on Friday, providing a pretty quick payoff for their Kickstarter Campaign from less than six months ago (thanks nin). Here's a reminder of what to expect from the game:

In FTL you experience the atmosphere of running a spaceship trying to save the galaxy. It's a dangerous mission, with every encounter presenting a unique challenge with multiple solutions. What will you do if a heavy missile barrage shuts down your shields? Reroute all power to the engines in an attempt to escape, power up additional weapons to blow your enemy out of the sky, or take the fight to them with a boarding party? This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.

PC gamers will often say things to the tune of "graphics don't matter" but I don't think most really mean it. I think it's more of a case of being tolerant of crappy visuals from a low budget one- or two-man project because the payoff is there in the gameplay. I think all PC gamers would agree an ugly game with terrific gameplay is far better than no game at all. But visuals do matter. To whit - I have heard many people state that all they really want in a true Xcom sequel is the original remade with better graphics and UI. Even to someone oldschool enough to have played Xcom, visuals matter. I remember loving the first Tomb Raider in all of its jagged, pointy, blocky 800 x 600 glory, but I tried re-installing it once and my eyes were bleeding.

A lot can be done to make a game not ugly on a minimalist budget with simply good art direction - even as a 2D pixel game Terrari had a certain charm that made it pleasing to look at after a fashion, but most indie low budget indie game's frankly don't. It's all cool and sophisticated to belittle people who won't try Avernum after seeing screenshots of its butt-ugly graphics (and admittedly the gameplay is well worth the trade-off) but I'd be willing to bet that Jeff Vogel would improve the visuals if he had a real budget to work with. Visuals always matter, and even well-done art only goes so far.

When people point to games with boring gameplay but great graphics as the only alternative they are not presenting a good counterpoint. There are plenty of style-over-substance games ( in which the visuals write checks the gameplay can't cash) out there, sure, but there are many, many games that offer a best of both worlds. Far Cry, for example, had great gameplay and mechanics and awesome, cutting edge visuals for its time (and still looks pretty even today). The recent Batman games come to mind as well. Indie studios can't come close to matching these budgets, true, but one reason I am so adamnat about supporting indie devs is in the hope that if they make it big they can continue to make games with brilliant gameplay but on bigger budgets that can accommodate better and better graphics. I want the best of both worlds; I want to have my cake and eat it too. And deep down, I think most PC gamers do as well.

This comment was edited on Sep 12, 2012, 19:52.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi